Blue

It really does feel like someone's trying to reboot the 2020 "Summer of Love." They want their George Floyd-style martyr. They want riots and unrest. I take a little bit of solace in the fact that, as I look around at the people I know who are always ardent supporters of The Current Thing, they're a little ambivalent. Oh they'll still give you a hearty "Fuck ICE" if you ask them. But they're not going out of their way. Not a lot of banners over their social media profile pictures like with Covid, and that sort of thing. I think people have run out of give a fuck, along with being overwhelmed just keeping their heads above water in our ever-deteriorating economy.

I suppose it could be that Trump wants Greenland to be the 51st star on the American flag. I doubt that's the plan though. I don't know what he wants, but I assume it's something more mundane (new SOFA as @Prosuper pointed out, maybe some kind of mineral rights, etc). And when Trump wants to move the needle on something, but he knows he'll run into difficulty, he has a well-worn strategy: If he wants X, he proposes X2. When he knows he's going to face some kind of challenge on an issue, he proposes the most hyperbolic, most extreme version of what he wants. The media melts down and the public melts down. Whoever is on the other side of whatever the issue is, melts down as well. After all of the chaos, Trump backs down, and the other side backs down, they negotiate, and Trump often gets what he wants, or close to it. It's not even all that unique. Developers do it all the time. When they want to put up a new 10 story building, but know they're going to face a bunch of NIMBYs, they go in with plans for 20 stories, take the attacks, and eventually walk it back to the 10 story plan they wanted in the first place. I suspect that's what's happening with Greenland.

This is a good start. I don't know if this is the place I would have started, but no matter. When it comes to defense spending, there is such a tremendous amount of giveaways, make-work, and other constructs that serve no purpose but to hand out money from Uncle Sam with no expectation of anything in return. I hope they continue along this path.

I assume you're referring to this? ItaMilRadarUS Tanker Squadron Departs Qatar as Iran Tensions RiseIn the early evening today, several US Air Force KC-135R aerial refuelling aircraft departed Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and headed south over the Arabian Peninsula before switching off their transpond

I'm a longtime reader of Karl Denninger's Market Ticker blog. His tagline is "Commentary on the The Capital Markets," but the subject matters range from politics, to technology, and elsewhere. Every year he does a "predictions" article for the year ahead, to include scoring of his predictions from the previous year. He gives himself a 59% for predictions from last year, so he's not Nostradamus, but the fact that he actually goes back and scores himself puts him above most other professional prognosticators. Article here, with predictions below.

Didn't digest the whole report, but this bit from the Executive Summary seems to sum it up. TO guidance is to use the PMA (a laptop hooked into the aircraft) to actuate the launch rail. Instead, the team lead sat in the cockpit and used the cockpit controls (in violation of TO guidance). When sitting in the cockpit, there is poor visibility to the weapons bay. There was some confusion amongst the team members, and the launch rail was retracted by the maintainer in the cockpit while another maintainer had his head in the way. That poor soul had their head fatally crushed. Maybe. I want to know more about how JBER personnel got to the point where they were actuating the launch rail from the cockpit instead of the laptop, in violation of TO guidance. The report indicates this was something that was "routine" at JBER, so it would be interesting to know how that came about. Sounds like classic "normalization of deviance" going on. Contributing, but they were doing this work in a hangar, with the APU running. So couldn't communicate verbally due to the noise, and had to rely on hand signals. Maybe I'm showing my ignorance of these things, but is that normal? Don't you typically have power in the hangar you can hook up to, or other ways to avoid running the APU?

Looks like the below X post summarizes the issue, for those who (like me), who didn't want to sit through Shawn Ryan's 8 minute video. Questions about US House members becoming millionaires are always concerning, for obvious reasons. I'd be more concerned about what I think is the more likely scenario: Corporations, NGOs, or other organizations who want to gain favor with Crenshaw, offering to foot the bill for his birthday bash. He entered Congress in 2018, and has been reelected three times since then. According to Wikipedia, his 2020 campaign was one of the most expensive Congressional races in the country, at $10M+. Someone is paying that bill, and it's for sure not Crenshaw himself. I don't follow this shit as much as others, but I've heard Crenshaw on a podcast once or twice, and read about him here and there. Ten years of service and five tours as a SEAL is an enviable military record, by any account. Good on him for leveraging that into a political career. But he sure comes off like a grown adult throwing a tantrum in this current issue. Also, based on the few things I've heard and read about him, he really comes off as someone who's committing the gravest error of celebrity: He's believing his own press. He's got this great image of American Hero Navy SEAL turned political crusader, fighting the good fight. While that makes for good press, I'm sure he's just as dirty as your normal Congress critter. Duke Cunningham was another Navy hero who rose to Congress, and by all accounts fell into the same trap, ultimately landing himself in prison. Finally, just because this kind of shit really grinds my gears: "My boys down at 6....." Man, STFU. You've been out for almost ten years. Your rank is Mister. Or Congressman. But throwing around comments like "your boys" just makes you sound like yet another washed-up military retiree in the Beltway, trying to impress people with a bunch of mindless name dropping.

Honest question: You're punching out at the 15 year mark?

Yeah. Play stupid fucking games Win stupid fucking prizes

Spit-balling from the cheap seats: If the Air Force desired to set up a reasonable ACE program as quickly and cheaply as possible, would reactivating the T-1 fleet be an option?

Would love to see Adam Carolla take over Kimmel's slot.

Curious to know the scope of the "gender identity content" that was being taught. Are we talking about 1-2 slides out of a whole semester? Or did this prof hijack the entire content of this "Children's Literature" course to push a bunch of gender identity nonsense? Both possibilities are obviously troubling, but it seems like it's going to matter, given the fact that the prof in question is screaming "But my academic freedom," while Welsh is citing "Academic responsibility." Searching around, I couldn't find anything specific.

This forum needs a TDS button.

🙄

While I don't believe them for a second, if this is the path they're going to choose, so be it. In that case, I'd like the investigation on Jeffrey Epstein to pivot to the question of: Where the fuck did he get all that money? That always seems to be lost in the breathless discussion about supposed "lists." Dude was a former teacher who pivoted to finance, and by all accounts, was pretty lousy at it. But somehow, he amassed a fortune north of a half billion dollars, to include properties all over the globe. It's pretty clear he didn't get this money from legitimate financial trading. There is strong evidence that he had financial backing from someone or some entity. Where did he get he money? Who bankrolled Epstein? To what end? Those are the questions I'd like answered.

I have no relevant advice to offer (I wish I did). Just curious how it went?

My cynical opinion: The Air Force has a finite amount of procurement dollars, and trainers are their last priority. I think the only thing that got the T-7 over the finish line was that it provided a lifeline to Boeing's St Louis operation.

From the outside looking in, this does seem to make the most sense. They've decided: 1.) They want X number of pilots 2.) The T-6 fleet as currently funded can only support Y number of hours AETC leadership has been told to produce "X" pilots utilizing the available "Y" T-6 hours. End of story. If you can't do it, step aside, we'll find another General who can. Curious what a proper recapitalization of the T-6 fleet would look like. Is it a matter of needing to buy an entirely new aircraft (T-6C)? Or is there a path where enough sustainment funding of the current fleet (modifications, upgrades, overhauls, etc) would get you the hours needed to avoid all of the current flailing about with 141 schools and the like?

Reminds me of this article from Air and Space Smithsonian magazine from 10 years ago. What Couldn’t the F-4 Phantom Do? Specifically the below. At the time, thought I knew most of the lore about the Phantom, but had never heard they chased Titan rockets with it.

Funding for the pro-Ukraine propaganda machine in the US dried up. Not sure if that was due to USAID being axed, or something else. Either way, much like "no bucks, no Buck Rogers," when there is no funding for propaganda, you get no wailing from the US middle and upper classes about Ukraine.

Dementia, cancer, and all the other physical and mental ailments of old age are both sad and terrifying. I'm sure many of us have seen it play out in our own families, or others close to us. That said, I'm still anxiously awaiting some kind of explanation as to who exactly was running the country while Biden was tottering around, oblivious to his surroundings. The American people are owed that. Also, while I'm not holding my breath, I'd hope we'd eventually get some understanding of Jill Biden's state-of-mind through her husband's presidency. How she was able to come to terms with the allegiances to her party vs her allegiances to her husband and his health.

10 of the retired KC-10s were sold via a GSA auction that closed yesterday. Opening bid of $500k, and it seems like all of them were bought at $500,100. One example: 79-0434: https://gsaauctions.gov/auctions/preview/321151 Looks like all had engines included, but booms removed. Will be interesting to see where they end up.

I don't get it. What does that even mean? Things were going great until Boeing and LM started on the program? Who else did this person think was going to build these planes?

Yeah, this. The question of using the autopen is just one of many threads to start pulling. The real questions I'd hope to get insight on would be the reality of Joe Biden's mental state throughout his presidency, who exactly was making decisions on his behalf, and the extent of those decisions.

I still don't understand why people are getting spun into the ceiling about this e-mail request. The guidance I've seen and heard about is more or less along the lines of "we want to make sure there is a person at the other end of that e-mail address. That's all." This tweet summarizes it. The messaging has been chaotic, from the White House and from SecDef. However, at no time has anyone said anything about responses being tied to a RIF or anything else (that I've seen). Do people have a source for that? Or is it just people fear-mongering in the absence of information?